It is the 1970s. You are a wealthy British aristocrat, a
Lord and a Baron no less, and you have a keen interest in motor sports. So,
with your own money and with the express purpose of having fun, you create your own racing company. Eventually you hire a reckless playboy/racer with a
penchant for drugs, sex and boozing, and you have a grand old time, even
winning a few races. Along the way you develop a reputation for ostentatious
displays of wealth and excess on the trackside, like helicopter rides, Rolls
Royce pit cars, and 5 star accommodations (in a time long before excess became
the norm in Formula 1).
After a few years the party is over and you are looking for
a new gasoline-fuelled hobby. How would you follow up a race career like that?
By founding your own bespoke motorcycle company to kickstart the dying British
motorcycle industry, of course.
